The process of reforming human services involves a true understanding of the meaning of child-centered, family-focused, community-based services, and the creation of the system that these concepts demand. The concept of "child-centered services" acknowledges that children are entitled to have their basic needs met in a manner that guarantees maximum opportunity for personal fulfillment and achievement. In order to visualize a child-centered, family-focused, community-based human service system, one must look at concentric circles in which the child and his or her full potential rest in the middle, surrounded by the family, the neighborhood and community, and the state and country. The system must be integrated at the local level, using an approach that removes categorical restrictions and combines funding from a variety of sources. This approach could bring together various state human service agencies for the purpose of integration, collaboration, and coordination. In this scenario, state agencies would become partners with local community members, facilitating goals concerning well-being and strategies established by the community. State agencies would lend knowledge, skill, and expertise to local community efforts and activities aimed at promoting child and family well-being, and would advocate on behalf of, and in partnership with, local communities at the state and federal level. Exploring these possibilities can help create a human service system worthy of its consumers. (MM)